France in 10 days

hi, so far in France, ive only been to Calais for work, Paris and Normandy for fun. You can do Normandy in 1 day if you are thinking the WWII US sites, but there wont be alot of time for other things. Theres Mont St Michel there too, but that will involve more time. If you an stay overnight in the Normandy area, it will allow you see something either in the early AM/PM of both days. I used a guide to show me the Normandy area since i dont like to drive. There are other guides and bus tours of the area too, but i wasnt able to book the one i wanted, so i opted for a personal guide. YOu can drive if you like but i took the train from Paris. it was about a 2 hour train ride from Paris to Bayeux where i stayed. It wasnt that expensive either. As for the other stuff, i will let the others help. happy trails.

Is there any way you could fly into Nice and out of Paris (or vice versa)? It would make the whole thing much easier. With 11 days, you will have about 8 actual days (one day for arrival, one for changing cities and one for leaving). That would give you only 4 days in Paris and 4 in the south of France. If you have to go back and forth to Paris, you essentially lose another day. In that case, a day trip to Normandy won't be possible. It's a stretch to squeeze it in the 8 days. Generally, taking a train to Paris to the south of France would work well. It takes a long time to drive. You may still need to rent a car when you reach your destination, depending on where you want to go. Another thing to consider would be Paris + Normandy area. You could see Mt. St. Michel, the Bayeux Tapestry, stop in Rouen and visit Giverny in addition to Paris. It would be a lovely time of year to see them, too.

Jim, I think this is straightforward. Split the time between Paris and Provence. Take the train to Provence and rent a car while you are there. Either fly home from Marseilles or arrange for an afternoon return flight from Paris and take the train to the (Paris) airport from Provence.

Hi Jim from Dallas. What a coincidence, I have an 89 year old M-I-L as well. However, her health isn't quite as good, but spunky and not too hard to travel with despite walking issues and sight problems. Gosh, you have so many choices and so little time to cover them all. As you know, you'll get a lot of help and suggestions on this board. Have you considered the Nice/French Riviera area? Did your F-I-L serve during WWII? Your M-I-L might want to see Normandy, very moving. If you do Normandy, consider Mount St. Michelle (sp), use R.S. guidebook to cover this area. If you will be going this Sept. I feel you should hustle and make your reservations to get your choice of accommodations. For the future, consider tripping to Chamonix/Mt. Blanc/Annecy area and I know your M-I-L, as well as you would enjoy Switzerland. So much to see and do, and.......so little time. Good Luck!

To everyone, and especially Dina who suggested flying into Nice, I did a lot of research based on what everyone has said and found that we can do that, but I can't make heads or tails out of the rail system and car rentals. If we fly into Nice we will need to rent a car there and drive over 100 miles to the center of Provence. Several have suggested St. Remy as a base. After 4 nights there we will head up to Paris. We will have a 1st Class France Railpass, but where do we turn in the car and catch the TGV train? Do we have to go back to Nice and catch the train there? Originally we were going to fly into Paris and take the train to Avignon where we would either stay for the four nights and use public transportation to get around, or rent a car there and stay in a smaller surrounding town. When it came time to head back north we would turn in the car where we got it. Good plan? Bad plan? Anyone out there had this deliemma and if so, how did you solve it? The only other time I rented a car was at the Edinburgh airport and I took it back there when I was finished with it. Thanks.

By the way, we took your advice and are now up to 12 days in France not counting our flight days.

hi again, since i will be going down there in the future, i thought i would see how the transportation is setup for that area. in any case (iac) i used Raileruope.com (sorry for all the people that dont like using it) but i chose Nice to Avignon to see about train logistics and it shows up about a 3 ~ 3.5 hour train ride (chose wednesday in july) in the AM for about 35~50 USD. (for your information (fyi) the prices maybe high as stated by more knowledgeable people on here.) so you may want to check the SNCF website for better prices, exact time table and others things or whatever web site is the best as recommended by others. Also, from my handy RS France book, it appears that you will need to take a bus or get a car to get to St. Remy from Avignon. Again, using raileuorpe.com and plugging and chugging Avignon to Paris, using a wednesday in July, i get approx 2.75 hours to 3.5 hours direct train ride and a cost range of 35~100 USD. I do notice that the raileurope.com web site shows maybe 2 different train stations in Avignon? but that is something that can investigated further. i just did this to see whats up down there for when i go, but it may give you an idea on costs and trip durations. i will leave the car/bus up to you. disclaimer: all info stated above is subject to change without notice and is current as of this day, time and how i assumed the day of travel. also since i use a Mac, it was said on www somewhere they us Mac users are charged more for things like flights/hotels and such. happy rails and trails.

Jim, I doubt a rail pass makes a lot of sense for a trip with only two travel days. But if you've got them (passes) and are flying into Nice and want to be in Provence, take the train to Provence. It's about a 3-hour trip, only slightly more than the train from Paris. You can rent a car in Avignon, and return it there if that is convenient.

Fly into Marsailles,rent car 1h to Avignon, explore area then drop car Avignon TGV station train to Paris. Other option train Avignon to Normandy area then on to Paris

I second Gerri fly out of Marseilles and save the backtracking to Paris. Marseilles airport is small and easy to navigate with rental car pick-up/drop-off right at the entrance. It's also easy to take the train from Paris and pick up a car in Avignon.

Fly into Paris, take TGV to Avignon we explored Avignon on foot for a day then rented a car to explore the area, go to Arles and explore the hill towns of Luberon and Ilse sur la Sorgue. Turned in car at train station and took train to Antibes for our base but you can go further onto Nice for a base. Again do what you can by foot then rent a car to explore. Monaco and my favorite town Vence! Return car and fly out of Nice. Not that difficult to drive there and it saves you so much time and gives you more freedom.